The Monster
by Cally Starkiller
Summary: Her name was Amelia Pond. She had an imaginary friend. And she waited. "If I read our story backwards, it's about how I un-broke your heart, and then we were happy until one day, you forgot about me forever."
1. start of time

Author's Note: Just wanted to quickly say that the main reason this story isn't in the Doctor Who crossover section is because there is no Doctor in my story and that I'm only using/borrowing very few themes and characters but not enough to justify this being a Doctor Who centric fic. This is a Slender fic that happens to have a character from Doctor Who and I'm writing this in a way where you don't need prior knowledge of the show. I plan on making this story long. You have been warned.

* * *

><p><em>"Loneliness is engineered into your brain before birth, and though you might try your hardest to show love, it always backfires. You are left alone to fight your own monsters, demons, to fight off the angels that swarm around your head and tell you what is right, and the ones who you are wishing to prove love to just happen to be those said angels."<em>

**- Unknown**

...

Being left alone for the night was not a new concept to Amelia Pond.

Her Aunt Sharon had said she'd be back in five minutes. That's what her parents said too but they never came back. She's been waiting a long time now and it was getting harder and harder to believe that they'll come back at all.

Sometimes Amelia thinks she wouldn't mind if Aunt Sharon never came back for she was hardly at home anymore these days. But it wasn't a nice thought for her Aunt Sharon was her guardian and who would look after her then? Maybe Mels' foster parents or Rory Williams' father, Brian.

In the end what did it matter? There was always food in the kitchen, new books and clothes when she asked, and while her Aunt Sharon did threaten to make her an appointment for the psychiatrist when she mentioned the crack in her room, she always made sure she was alright by the end of the day. Usually.

The crack in the wall in her room was continuously growing. At first it was just an ordinary crack and she hardly noticed it at all. It was just something that was always there as far as she could remember. Then one night when her Aunt Sharon was out, the crack split open with a blinding light and a monstrous voice shouted at her.

When she mentioned her fear of the crack, her Aunt Sharon tried to reassure her that it was just an ordinary crack and nothing to be afraid of. However, her fear that it might one day swallow her whole never faded. Aunt Sharon noticed this and attempted only once to tell her that she was just having nightmares. After that, she began to threaten her with the psychiatrist appointments.

It was becoming increasingly apparent that her Aunt Sharon wasn't going to be of much help to her. Amelia decided to ask someone of a higher authority to help instead.

"Dear Santa," Amelia began as knelt down by her bed, "Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you. But honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack but I know it's not. Because at night there's voices. So please, please could you send someone to fix it. Like a Doctor...or a policeman...or a police operator...or-"

The sound of tree branches snapping and a loud crash interrupted her. "Back in a moment." She went and grabbed her torch then ran toward the window. The shed in the back of the garden had toppled over thanks to a fallen tree. The sight that was behind the fallen tree was what made her smile. "Thank you Santa."

She ran outside to investigate and get a closer look at what she saw behind the tree. The fallen tree narrowly missed the tulips that grew near the shed, Amelia noted with relief. Her Aunt Sharon wouldn't be too pleased about the broken shed but at least the tulips were alright. She turned on her torch and pointed it towards the other trees, hoping that whoever was there earlier would appear again.

Suddenly a tall lithe figure stood right before her. Her gaze started from the legs and worked up towards its face. Or lack of one. Where there should've been eyes were only little indents. There was no mouth or nose or ears. There was not a single hair on top of its head. It was incredibly pale. Amelia thought it could use some colour to offset the black suit it was wearing. The red tie was not enough.

She realized she was staring at a blank slate and it was staring right back. But that was impossible. It had no eyes and yet she could feel its gaze. But she never took her eyes off of it. Behind the tall man were black tentacles that were ferociously moving in all directions, waving madly. She got the impression that it wasn't going to be of much help. All it was doing was just standing there completely still aside from the tentacles that reminded her of worms.

"Are you a Doctor?"

No answer.

"Are you a policeman?"

Still no answer.

"Are you an Operator for the p-"

A low rumble started to emanate from the strange tall being, causing her to stop speaking. It sounded almost like a laugh but she dismissed the idea. A loud ripping sound came from its face as a mouth appeared on its blank palette. Rows of sharp teeth greeted her behind the jagged gap.

"Some call me the Operator. I am more commonly known as the Slender Man, however." Amelia didn't question his name for it made perfect sense. If she were to give this tall man a hug she'd probably end up getting a paper cut from how slender he was. Not that she'd give him a hug in the first place since she still had no idea if he was here to help or not.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"What crack?" Slenderman tilted his head at her, mouth still ripped open and tentacles still flying about madly.

"Are you alright?" Amelia referred to his current state. To her, he looked upset about something.

"I'm-" Slenderman retracted his tentacles and his mouth stitched back closed at her question. "I'm fine." He looked at her in a questioning manner. "Does it scare you?"

"No, it just looks a bit weird." He was still able to talk despite his mouth disappearing from view. Amelia wondered why but decided to save these types of questions for later.

At her answer, Slenderman lowered his height by a few feet. He was now only seven feet tall but to her, he was still a giant. "Now about this crack in your wall...does it scare you?"

"Yes." In that simple word he heard her tone change drastically. There was no doubt in his mind that she was absolutely terrified of this crack. His curiosity grew.

"Let's have a look at this...crack in your wall, shall we?" Relief and happiness overcame her initial hesitation towards the Slender Man. She gave another silent thanks to Santa and began to lead the way back to her house through the garden. As they went through her house and ascended the stairs up to her room, Slenderman couldn't help but notice the lack of other humans and the absence of noise.

Before they could enter her room, Slenderman suddenly stopped in his tracks behind her. He looked a little wobbly and ready to collapse. "Mister, are you alright?"

"Yes, I am just simply...hungry." There was a reason he was hunting late at night. It had been a long time since he's last visited England. It was supposed to be a simple scare. Something to sate his appetite. He was beyond killing at this point in his long life. There was no need to be excessively violent and be a brutal murderer, unless the occasion called for it but even then, the activity was boring. He could live on fear alone. At times however, he misses it but refuses to relish in the gruesome memories...for now.

"The kitchen is back this way." Amelia would offer him something to eat. It was the least she could do since he seemed willing to help her with her problem.

Slenderman was about to interrupt to tell her that he had no taste or interest in human foods but decided to indulge the little human. So far she had proven quite interesting.

She showed him a chair he could sit in at the small table in the middle of the kitchen. Amelia watched as the tall man awkwardly attempted to get adjusted before he gave up and shrunk down to six feet. He looked a lot less imposing, sitting at a kitchen table like he was some normal person waiting for their breakfast to be served. But he was far from normal. Not that Amelia had a problem with it.

Finding food that the Slender Man liked was no easy task. He had refused to eat anything she put in front of him, saying something silly about how his hunger was different. She took this as him having a craving for something specific but he wasn't being very helpful as to what he was craving for.

Anything that was edible in her kitchen, she put on a plate in front of him. From yogurt to beans to bread and butter and apples, Amelia was starting to run out of ideas. Eventually she dug through the freezer and pulled out a batch of fish fingers to cook. As they were cooking, she dumped several servings of custard into a bowl and set it in front of him. She couldn't be sure but it appeared as if he was raising an eyebrow at her. If he had eyebrows that is. She told him to wait a minute. When the fish fingers were done, she set them on two plates for them to eat and managed to convince him to at least try it.

"Why are you so..." Amelia trailed off as she poured him tea to drink.

"Why am I so what?" Slenderman didn't want to admit it, but a small part of him rather enjoyed the fish fingers and custard. Not that he would ever eat it again. But he had to applaud the child in her attempts to feed him. She even went as far as to fry him some bacon earlier.

"So weird," Amelia finished with a giggle. She was trying her best to be serious but she couldn't help it. She liked this Slender Man.

"You find me to be weird?" After a pause, he asked, "What sort of weird do you find me to be?"

"Funny weird." Another perplexing answer from the human child. He could only assume that being 'funny weird' was a 'good weird'.

"What is your name?"

"Amelia Pond," she replied earnestly.

"Hm. It sounds a bit..." He tried to think of the right word. The name sounded to him like something out of a storybook. "...fairytale."

"What about your name?" Amelia asked in return. "Why do you have two names?"

"I have far more than two names. Many places around the world have different names for me. In Scotland I am called the Fear Dubh, The Dark Man, the Dutch call me Takkenmann, Branch Man, and the Germans' legends call me Der Großmann, the Tall Man."

"I haven't heard of you back in Scotland." Amelia liked reading history books but hadn't been given the opportunity to hear or read about legends and myths.

"You lived in Scotland?" He wasn't sure why he was still talking to the girl like it was some normal occurrence that happened often. It was a rarity to be interacting with a human this long for him.

She shook her head yes in reply, taking another bite of the fish fingers dipped in custard.

"Amelia," Slenderman waited until she was done eating to continue asking, "where are your parents? Are they asleep?"

"I don't have parents. Just an Aunt. She's out." The nonchalance in her voice shouldn't have concerned him at all but for a brief moment, it did.

"And she left you alone? Aren't you scared?" His curiosity was soaring now.

"No."

"No...of course you're not. I don't think you're scared of anything. You hear a loud sound from outside at night, you go and investigate said sound by yourself, you find a tall man in the dark, you ask him for help and make him food...and look at you now, just sitting there as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Do you know what that tells me?"

"What?"

"That it's time for me to take a look at the crack in your wall..." At this, Amelia left the table to take him back upstairs but he stopped midway on the staircase.

"Amelia..." His voice was a whisper that she had to strain to hear, "...are you sure there is no one else in this house with you?"

She saw him look behind them and around the hallway. "Why? Are you scared?" She was ready to flip on the lights or even take his hand but she did not want him to know she was afraid.

What sounded like a scoff answered her. "No. Let's keep going."

They ventured further down the hallway until they reached a doorway that she hesitated at entering. "Is this your room?"

"Yes. The crack is in there." Moments passed and yet she still did not move. Slenderman entered her room first and stopped in the middle when he saw it. She stayed right behind him when he got closer to it, leaning his nonexistent ear against the wall.

"Do you hear...?" There was a faint voice but he couldn't make out the words.

"All the time." How she hasn't gone mad at this point perplexed him. Finally he heard what it was saying.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. Who is that?" He asked her, his blank slate of a face contorted in bewilderment.

"I don't know. That's all it ever says."

Silence fell upon them. The only sound the two could hear was the voice behind the crack, repeating and echoing its message. After several minutes of this, Slenderman left the room and went down the stairs out of the house.

"Slenderman...?" Amelia followed him back into the garden. When she finally caught up to him she asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to teleport around the world to find out what the message means," he stated simply.

"Can I come?" There was enthusiasm in her voice and that bothered him.

"No...I'm afraid that isn't a good idea. Give me five minutes and I'll be right back."

"People always say that." Her parents had said five minutes and they never came back.

That gave him pause. Turning back around to face her directly, he looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I'm not people."

Before she could respond, he disappeared into thin air. Amelia frowned but went to go sit on her swingset. She was too scared to return inside, remembering that Slenderman had asked if she was sure there was no one else in the house with her. She could feel dread pile up in the pit of her stomach, absolutely terrified to go back.

The Slender Man had said he'd be five minutes and while one may never come back in five minutes, Amelia decided she could trust him.

Being left alone for the night was not a new concept to Amelia Pond, but on this night she no longer wanted to be left alone and so she waited.


	2. in the sea

_"I'm an atom in the sea of nothing, looking for another to combine. Maybe we can be the start of something, come together at the __**start of time**__."_

…

Slenderman teleported back to the forest which he called home. He stood there for a long time, watching as leaves fell from their branches on trees as tall as him. Eventually, one of his proxies approached him. It was Masky, the more talkative of his two proxies with Hoodie being the quietest. But Slenderman had no words, not for what had occurred to him back in England. He wasn't sure if he would even mention it to his proxy.

"Is everything alright, boss?" Masky already knew the answer for it was obvious just by looking at Slenderman. He had not finished hunting nor did he get a scare in. Wherever it was he had gone, nothing had been accomplished by him. Or so he thought.

He gave a long sigh before he answered. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to contact one of my brothers."

"Which one?" Masky knew he had at least three brothers that he barely spoke to and hardly mentioned them.

"...Splendorman." Upon hearing the name, Masky instantly looked up at Slenderman in a questioning manner. Slender could feel his gaze on him but otherwise said nothing.

After a few minutes of silence, Masky finally asked, "Why Splendorman?"

It seemed like Slender was never going to answer him and Masky was about ready to turn around and drop the matter but eventually he gave a response. "There was a girl. And she was not afraid."

Masky was going to give a plausible reason or explanation as to why the girl would not have been scared by him but he supposed Slender already knew the answer to why she wasn't. He wondered what good having Splendorman around would do for he knew that he wouldn't scare the girl. Instead he'd probably befriend the girl and that would be the exact opposite of what Slenderman was trying to do to her. Curious, Masky asked the morbid question, "Why not kill her?"

Another sigh emanated from the tall man. "I have no interest in killing her."

When he didn't continue, Masky asked, "I know you haven't killed in awhile and I know your reasoning behind it..." He knew that ever since Slenderman found that simply scaring his victims was enough to sustain him, he abstained from killing and in time found the act to be unnecessary, even when it seemed like at times he missed it. "...but if she's not afraid of you, then why keep her alive?"

"Because there was something she was afraid of far more than me." Masky was sure he wasn't going to get an answer as to what the girl was afraid of but he knew better than to push the matter. He felt the relationship between him and Slender that while albeit complicated, he knew for a fact there was some semblance of trust and that hopefully in time, Slender would trust him with whatever information he was holding back.

"Now if you excuse me, I need to go contact my brother." And with that, he disappeared without another word.

…

Finding his brother was no hard task. It was easy to spot him next to his favorite park, all by himself on the edge of the forest. "What are you doing?"

"There is a homeless child that sleeps by herself on the bench in this park. I'm watching over her." Slenderman wouldn't even begin to try to understand his incredibly happy brother but over the years, he has learned to simply accept the fact that he is who he is even if he doesn't approve for the most part. He gave a 'hmm' and turned to look at him. Splendorman was smiling which wasn't a shocker but his smile did seem to grow in size when Slender visited.

"There is someone I need you to watch over." This took Splendy by surprise as he twisted around to face his taller brother. He knew of his brother's ways and this was very much unlike him.

"Wha-?"

"She is not scared of me. I have no desire to kill her. I need you to watch her." Slenderman left very little room to argue.

"I will do it but why are you-"

"Because I have left her behind with something that scares her more than me. I need to find out what it is." Splendy never liked how cryptic sounding his brother could be sometimes. He had no qualms against watching over someone for his brother, especially if it meant protecting them from any potential harm like how most of his victims have come to know.

"...I told her I'd be back in five minutes. That is not a promise I can keep, however." Slender's face showed little emotions due to his lack of facial features but Splendy could tell he seemed a little...troubled.

"Can you keep me a promise, little brother?" Splendy felt his brother's gaze on him and proceeded. "Promise me you'll tell me what's going on...after I'm done watching her."

"Only if you do not interfere in her life more than I have. I wish to see how tonight's events change her...in the future." Slender could already tell his older brother was starting to disapprove of this plan.

"Brother, if you're going to cause the Slender Sickness on her then I do not-"

"Nothing like that, I assure you. Not exactly." Slender interrupted, knowing that Splendy would not wish such harm on a child.

"How much have you interfered in her life? Is it...bad?" Splendy was starting to fear the worst.

"I have only been present in her life for a night that she may or may not soon forget. Please do not try to become her friend or any of that nonsense," Slenderman uttered for he knew how easy it was to talk to that...child.

"Aww..." Splendy's disappointment was not hard to miss but he agreed nonetheless.

"Go to her. I do not know if she will still be waiting in the garden." Slender remembered how he left her all alone outside a house that may or may not contain a monster inside.

"You left her all by herself _outside_? Slendy, how could you?" If Slenderman could roll his eyes, he would.

"Would you just go?" He was starting to get exasperated with his older brother and was reminded why he almost never visited his brothers.

"I don't like these short visits." Splendy complained before he disappeared suddenly. Slender saw him in the distance as he scooped up the homeless girl from the bench and took her away to safety he presumed.

"Before I leave, where am I going exactly, little brother?" Splendy appeared in front of him a few minutes later. After Slenderman told him, he disappeared again.

…

Splendorman arrived in the garden after making a few wrong turns and noted that the stars were fading from view in the early morning sky. After he passed the fallen shed and tree, that's when he saw the small Scottish girl. She was still in her nightie but had put on an oversized blue coat with winter mittens and a red knitted hat. She even had on red rain boots. Splendy could hardly believe just how small and adorable the child was. He started to think about what Slendy would have done to her if whatever it was she had done changed his mind about her hadn't happened. He was unaware of Slenderman's new ways about scaring his victims so the thoughts he had weren't pleasant. In fact, it was starting to make him sad, almost to the point of crying. But he shook himself out of it in order to get a closer look at the young girl.

Her name was Amelia Pond, according to Slendy. She looked like she was no older than seven years old. Splendy saw she was lying asleep on a suitcase she had packed. The sadness returned when he thought about the implications behind it. She had waited all night for his younger brother, Slenderman, to return. He bent down to pick her up off the ground, taking her suitcase along too. Splendy double-checked no one was in the house before he entered it. He made a few wild guesses as to where her room was at and started the process of making sure she would be comfortable in bed. Splendy made sure not to wake her up as he removed her coat, hat, mittens, and rain boots and tucked her in bed.

"Sleep tight, little one." Splendy said with great cheer, his smile bright and wide as he started to leave her room. That was when he noticed the ominous looking crack in her wall above the bed. If he listened carefully, he could hear words being repeated over and over again. This caused his smile to falter slightly as he realized what kind of danger he might be leaving her in. He didn't like the look of the crack in the wall but he knew there was nothing he could do about it now. Slendy was very specific about not interfering too much in her life. That didn't mean he was going to leave her alone permanently. He would make sure to check back up on her later on.

With regret in his heart, Splendorman teleported away from her room and back to the park where he liked to reside. Unbeknownst to him, Slenderman entered Amelia's room after he left and began to tell her words that wouldn't be spoken or mentioned again for a number of years into the future.


	3. the rest of my life

**A/N: sorry for short chapter, just had to get something out to avoid an even longer wait.**

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_**It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair**__**  
><strong>__**Still I'm the only one who seems to care**__**"**_

_**-Passion Pit – It's Not My Fault I'm Happy**_

_…_

When Amelia woke up the next morning after the longest night of her life, she had expected everything to look different. She expected to wake up in a forest or wherever it is that Slender Man resided at. But everything was the same. The crack in her wall was the same. The absence of her Aunt Sharon in the morning was the same.

The only thing that wasn't the same was the fact that somehow she ended up back inside her big empty house, lying in bed with her red rain boots and outwear off...almost like last night's events never happened and it was all one big dream. Amelia knew she had a bit of an imagination but what happened the night before would've been impossible to come up with on her own.

The sound of the door opening downstairs prompted Amelia to get up from bed and race to the stairs to see who it was. Maybe it was Slenderman, returning to keep his promise. A sigh escaped from her lips when she saw who it actually was. It was her unreliable aunt, back in time for breakfast.

"Amelia! Time for breakfast!" With a roll of her eyes, she slowly went down the stairs to meet her aunt. "What in the world?" Amelia stopped in her tracks, only just now realizing that she had left quite a mess in the kitchen when cooking for Slenderman. She wasn't sure if she should tell a lie or tell the truth. If her Aunt Sharon wasn't going to believe in the danger behind the crack in the wall, then without a doubt she wasn't going to believe in the Slender Man.

"Amelia Pond, did you do this?" She stopped right at the entrance to the kitchen, observing her aunt who was in the process of cleaning up the kitchen. She saw the plastic bag sitting on the table, knowing that its contents were to be her breakfast, lunch, and dinner today.

"No," she said simply as she took out the small cereal box, milk, and small loaf of bread and began to prepare her food. "Maybe it was a burglar," she continued, sticking two pieces of bread into the toaster.

"Why would a burglar break into the kitchen only to create a mess?" The garbage can was starting to get full from all the uneaten food that was lying about the place. Amelia, ignoring her aunt who was now trying to sweep up egg shells on the ground, began to butter her toast only to think of when she tried to get Slenderman to eat buttered toast.

"Maybe he was hungry." Amelia really wished her Aunt Sharon would stop talking about the mess in the kitchen. It only made her disappointment grow as she thought back to the Slenderman. He had seemed nice...but probably not nice enough to keep his promises, even if that promise was made to a stranger. She sighed loudly as she sat back down at the kitchen table, pouring her cereal and milk into the bowl.

"Honestly Amelia, do you really-" The abrupt stop in conversation caused her to worry and to eventually look up at her aunt who was staring at her in the strangest way. "Have you been up all night?"

There was a noticeable pause before she answered. "No." But of course, her aunt didn't believe her. She sat there and listened as her Aunt Sharon went on and on about the bags under her eyes, her disheveled hair, her rumpled clothing, all the wasted food that was now in the garbage, and who she could possibly have cooked all that food for cause it certainly wasn't just for herself.

"It was for a friend."

"It wasn't for Mels or Rory was it?"

"No, it was for Slenderman."

And with those five words, the rest of Amelia's life would never be the same.


	4. and i will wait for you

**A/N: okay next chapter is where things will start to pick up a bit. any ideas or input are welcome. also i love your name, FishCustard. :) **

* * *

><p><em>"let me be robbed of my faith in private."<em>

_**-unknown**_

_…_

This would not be the first time she would try and explain the Slenderman to anybody. Her Aunt Sharon was only the beginning. The look on her aunt's face when she described him made her question a few things though. Was he scary? She didn't think so. Not really at least. He had looked strange at first but when the tentacles disappeared and he lowered his height by a few feet and had started to look like he was going to help her, Amelia knew right away that she was not afraid of him. The only thing that terrified her right now was the crack in her wall.

But should it terrify her as well that her strange new friend had left her alone to deal with the possible monster behind the crack in her wall? Maybe he didn't mean to. He had said he was going to travel across the world to find out what could be behind the crack. That would take more than five minutes. But why had he promised her five minutes?

She was still going to hold out hope that he might return today. Perhaps he had gotten stuck somewhere or lost his way to her house or an emergency came up for him. However, these were the exact same statements she had told herself when her parents never came back in five minutes.

Amelia gave up on trying to convince her Aunt Sharon on the existence of Slenderman for today. Maybe if she drew a picture of him and showed it to her... She was about to go back upstairs to start drawing when she heard a knock on the door. Amelia couldn't help the smile on her face and the brief burst of excitement that made her rush to the door to open it.

Where she had hoped to see a tall dark man with a pale blank face stood a short dorky looking friend named Rory. She used the word 'friend' lightly in this case. She only ever hung out with Rory when her other friend, Mels, insisted on him joining them.

"Oh. Hey Rory." Amelia's excitement deflated at the appearance of Mels' friend instead of her new one.

"Hi Amelia. Mels wants to go to park today. Do you want to come?" She was about to say no just in case Slenderman might show today still but decided against it. She could show them a quick drawing of Slenderman and even start telling them about him.

"Sure. Give me a moment." Amelia raced upstairs to her bedroom and took out a piece of paper with a black marker. She didn't bother too much with details, just a general sketch with some trees off to the side as the background. After she finished the drawing, Amelia put on her coat and rain boots that were lying on a nearby chair...almost like someone put them there for her. She dismissed the thought and went back to Rory where he patiently stood waiting for her.

After Rory and Amelia got to the park where Mels was waiting, Amelia wasted no time telling her friends about Slenderman. Their reactions were more promising than her Aunt Sharon's but the small hint that she got that they didn't quite believe her disheartened her.

They asked her lots of questions, some she didn't have answers to for she never got the chance to ask Slenderman them. Why did he have tentacles, how can he teleport, why does he wear a suit, how can he change his height, why did he eat the fish fingers and custard, was he an alien or a demon, why doesn't he have a face, and the biggest question of them all...why didn't he come back in five minutes...

When Mels and Rory noticed her reaction to the last one, they stopped asking questions and tried to lead her to the swing set to help get her mind off of the Slenderman. But this experience she had with the mysterious tall man wasn't something she was going to forget so easily.

Amelia followed her friends to the swings when she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. As she did a double take, she saw the figure more clearly. Tall, dark, with colourful spots decorating its suit. When she was about to draw her friends attention to the sight, it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. She knew it wasn't Slenderman but it bared a strong resemblance to him. Amelia made a note to draw him too later on when she would get home.

After a long day of hanging out with her friends at the park, Amelia finally started on her drawings and pictures. There were a few of Slenderman standing alone in her garden but they mostly depicted the two of them together.

Amelia decided to keep the suitcase packed and ready and set it in the corner for when...or if Slenderman would return. She started to hang up a few of the pictures she drew, hoping to show them to him if he came back. If. No, when he came back.

Over the years Amelia would begin to say more 'ifs' and less 'whens' as she began to count how many times five minutes have passed every hour until one day that number became too high for her to remember.


	5. the return pt I

"When is a monster not a monster?"

Caitlin Siehl

…

The answer as to who was behind the crack in Amelia's wall wasn't easy to find. But why the crack was there in the first place was even harder to figure out. It would baffle him for ages. Perhaps there would never be a clear cut answer to this question. All he knew was that it was time for him to return to the girl and let her be rid of the 'monster' who resided in the crack in the wall.

Slenderman returned to the garden only to have memories of that night come flooding back. Amelia Pond, the girl who was not afraid of him. The girl who tried to feed him odd human food like fish fingers and custard. The girl who had no parents present in her life. The girl who he almost forgot about but was always there in the back of his mind, waiting...

As he walked through the garden, there were noticeable changes but he ignored them. The shed had been fixed and the fallen tree was no longer there. There were more flowers growing, more tulips and sunflowers. The swingset that looked brand new was now old and rusting. The house Amelia lived in still looked far too big for a little girl and her aunt to reside in.

When he entered the house, there was no sound. He expected a television or a radio to be on but there was nothing. Just complete silence. Perhaps little Amelia was still asleep and her Aunt was out yet again. He passed through the kitchen only to be reminded of the mess he had made. He shook his head at the memory and continued his tour. He arrived at the stairs, remembering when Amelia had asked him if he was scared when that was clearly a question he should have been asking her.

After he ascended the staircase, Slenderman made a beeline for Amelia's room. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone else there with him when clearly the Aunt was out and Amelia was still in her room. Right when he was about to turn around and scare the creature or person away, an unknown object hit him over the head. It barely fazed him and left little damage. It almost made him laugh.

He came face to face with the person behind the attack and was about to unleash his tentacles and raise his height by a few feet until he saw who it was. He wasn't quite sure what to think when he saw this person...

She was tall. Incredibly tall. An inch away from being 6 ft, to be exact. She was wearing a police uniform, red hair hidden underneath a black hat with a checkered lining. The police uniform explained the baton she held tightly in her hands. Her face was carefully blank, almost devoid of emotion. He was no expert in the many displays of human emotions. He was only familiar with one emotion: fear. And he saw no fear on her face. This made him stop in his tracks. Could this be Amelia's aunt...?

"Who are you?" The question was asked at the same time by the two. The unknown woman answered first, if albeit hesitant.

"Amy." The policewoman lowered her baton and placed it back on her belt. "Amy...Williams."

There was no way to tell if she was lying or not. Her face was giving away nothing except for the occasional flicker of unknown emotion.

"I'm the Slender Man." He wanted to get straight to the point as quickly as possible. If his answer to the crack in the wall was correct, he needed to tell Amelia right away and this policewoman was getting in the way between him and her room. "Does an Amelia live here?"

"Amelia Pond?" There was a cricket bat sitting against the wall nearby and her eyes flickered towards it every so often. When it looked like she was going to be of no help to him, Slenderman tried to go around her but was stopped short. In one move, Amy had grabbed the cricket bat and pointed it towards him. "Oy! You. No moving. You're breaking and entering."

The cricket bat was barely a threat to him and was a bit amused at the attempt made by the policewoman to stop him. He tilted his head at her and was about to teleport behind her in an effort to perhaps scare her but if she wasn't afraid of him at this point, then there was no point in trying further.

"Where's Amelia?" He was only going to ask once and if she tried to stop him again, he was no longer going to bother with this Amy.

"Amelia..." The way the policewoman said her name peaked his interest. "Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."

"...how long?"

"Six months." Right at that instant, Slenderman realized just how long he had been gone for. Years meant almost nothing to him. Years could feel like minutes, hours, mere days...he was a creature that has lived for centuries. Five minutes would feel like five hours to a human being, depending on how impatient they are. This is something he learned from his human proxies, Masky and Hoodie. So six months must've felt like forever while to him...it was nothing.

"No. Impossible..." He thought back to the garden and on how different it looked. "What happened to her?" There was no immediate answer from her so he asked again, "What happened to Amelia Pond?"

"She's gone. This is my house now."

"How many rooms?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"If this is your house, then how many rooms on this floor?"

"Five," Amy replied, confusion now replacing her blank face.

"No. Six." When Slenderman saw that she didn't understand, he explained, "Look."

"Look where?"

"The corner of your eye. Look behind you." The air had gotten cold and there was still silence in the house. Amy followed his directions and very carefully shifted her gaze from Slender's face to the hidden door. There was no room behind that door, she was sure of this fact. In fact, that door was never there to begin with.

"I don't understand..." Amy whispered to herself. She started to head for the door, not heeding Slender Man's warning to stop as she stepped into the room. And what she saw in the room next would change her life – indefinitely.


	6. the return pt II

Continued from last chapter.

* * *

><p>"This isn't possible. This is a whole other room. A whole room I've never even noticed." The room was empty, apart from a wooden table and a few packing boxes. Amy could still hear Slenderman's attempts at trying to make her leave the room. She could hear him talking but each time she looked back at him through the open doorway, his mouth wasn't moving. In fact, his mouth had disappeared completely. His voice must be in her head. Another question for later.<p>

_"Get out of there."_ His voice was low and dangerous. Not a threat. But urgent.

"There's nothing in here," Amy countered. The door shut behind her, telling her otherwise. There was someone in the room with her but she couldn't see them. She hears Slenderman's footsteps reach toward the door but he doesn't open it. It's like he's waiting...but waiting for what? Why doesn't he come in? Is he waiting to see how she'll react to whatever is in this room? Is he...scared?

As the questions kept piling up in her mind, Slenderman's voice became louder in her head.

_"Get out. Get out of there now." _

Amy could feel something lightly touching her back, like a hot breath whispering across the back of her neck.

_ "What is it? What are you doing?" _

"There's nothing here, but..." Amy was frozen in place, unable and not wanting to move an inch.

_"Corner of your eye." _Amy's confusion rises but she looks in the corner of her eye again. What she sees makes her scream and rush out of the room in a blur. It was definitely not human, whatever it was.

She runs right into Slenderman, losing her police hat as a result. Her bright red hair falls around her, the disguise gone. She can see the question forming on Slenderman's blank face. If he had eyebrows, they would be raised. "Kissogram," Amy huffs, subconsciously tugging her short black skirt further down. It was plainly obvious to anyone she was no policewoman. But the question was still present on his face.

There was no time to dwell on her identity for the being in the hidden room had emerged. But it looked nothing like what she saw. It was a workman in overalls accompanied by a black dog on a leash. "But it's just..."

_"No." _Amy scrunches up her face when she notices the man was the one barking and not the dog. "No..." Amy repeats after him.

"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

"What's that?" She looks to Slenderman for answers but finds that he has none as well.

_"Run." _Amy wasn't sure who reached out first but she finds that their hands had collided into one another. With a tight grip on his cold hand, she makes a dash for the stairs. Before they could move another step, Slenderman had teleported them. The sensation was indescribable for Amy felt only static and smoke and nothing more.

They were outside her house and they were still holding hands. Slenderman was the first to break off the physical contact but never broke eye contact with her. It was unnerving, being stared down by an eyeless person.

There was a question he wanted to ask so she beat him to the punch. "Yes. A kissogram. Work through it." But he still appeared to be confused. "I pretended to be a policewoman because you broke into my house. It was this or a French Maid. So what's going on? Tell me. Tell me!" He continued to stare at her blankly to the point where Amy could see the giant question mark above his head.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." At hearing the booming voice from above, Amy turned to leave. "Come on."

"No." His voice sounded more real and less like an echo. He was speaking for real this time and not just in her head. She'd have to ask about that later. Along with everything else. "The shed."

"Yeah, what about it?" Amy shifted her gaze between his torn open mouth and the shed he was mentioning.

"I destroyed that shed last time I was here..."

"So there's a new one. Let's go." Urgency almost made her want to tug on the Slenderman's suit sleeve.

"It's old." Slenderman closed the gap between him and the shed. He stared at the old rotting shed for what felt like an eternity. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late...I'm twelve years late." At this revelation, he turned to face her.

When Amy saw he was staring at her again, she tried again to get them moving away from her house. "He's coming."

"Why did you say six months?" Everything was screaming at her to run away. His stance was dangerous, almost like a predator. With each word he said, Slenderman was coming closer towards her.

"We've got to go." Amy tried again one last time, backing away from him and the house.

"_**No.**_" There was static in the corner of her vision and she tried blinking it away but to no avail. "_**Why did you say six months**_?"

"Why did you say five minutes!"

Everything stopped. The static was gone. The faint booming sound was gone. Slenderman stopped dead in his tracks. Before he could say anything else, Amy broke the silence with a, "Come on." And so he followed. He followed her out of the garden. He followed her into the village...

…

"You're Amelia." He spoke plainly, silently chastising himself for not having figured it out before.

"And you're late." There were lots of emotions running through her voice but none were overly familiar with him.

"Amelia Pond." He repeated himself, almost like he couldn't believe the words that were tumbling out of his mouth and the sight of the woman before him. "You're the little girl."

"I'm Amelia and you're late." She was beginning to sound exasperated with him. He's heard that tone of voice only once before in his proxies, Masky and Hoodie.

The unspoken question came and she answered it. "Twelve years." Something that felt akin to amusement and bewilderment flooded him. She had hit him with a cricket bat."Twelve years and four psychiatrists." When he tilted his head at her, she answered again. "There were four because I kept biting them." There was a pause as she turned away from him to keep walking down the lane. "They said you weren't real."

They were starting to come up towards the main block and that's when he stopped walking. The sight of him amongst humans was a troubling one. Not to mention how they would react if they saw him. They would not react to him as Amelia did to him: without fear.

When Amelia noticed he was no longer walking beside her, she turned her fiery gaze on him. Even more emotions were being emitted from those pale green eyes. He could not begin to pinpoint the ones that stood out the most. "What? What's wrong?"

Her voice had a sharp edge to it, the Scottish accent growing stronger with each word. He looked upon the people in the distance and back at her.

"Nobody believed me." Amelia was good at answering his unspoken questions. He didn't have to voice them in her mind. "Nobody thinks you're real." The small tremor in her voice gave a tug at something inside him. He paid it no attention. "They'll just think you're some guy in a Halloween costume."

He wasn't so sure of that. There were many times he would stand in empty alleyways, waiting for someone to walk by and notice the tall man staring at them. They would often flee in a panic, never catching more than a glance at him before he would disappear into another alleyway. He learned that most humans found him more terrifying when they would barely see him. Hidden behind a tree in a dark forest, standing behind a dumpster in the shadows, almost in plain sight out of a foggy window...

But to be standing here in the village, middle of the day with the sun beating down on them, no dark corners to hide in...he wondered if he would have the same effect.

There was only one way to find out...


	7. come away to the darkness

Slenderman went along with Amy Pond into the village. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat."

"No, no, no, come on. What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van." The message was coming from the ice cream van speakers. The ice cream man says that it's supposed to be Claire De Lune playing but Amy pays him no attention. The ice cream man notices the Slenderman but says nothing about it, only muttering something about strange things happening today.

"Why is it playing on the radio too?" Amy was asking questions that Slenderman had no answers to. She kept on walking until she spotted a strange sight in Mrs. Angelo's home through the window. There was a big eyeball on the television and Mrs. Angelo was in front of it, jabbing at the remote control to change the channel. "Come on."

Amy knocks on the door and looks behind her with a small smile. It was strange and a bit awkward, seeing him follow her around like he was some normal person. Mrs. Angelo finally answers the door and lets them in. "Oh, hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?"

"Well, sometimes."

"I thought you were a nurse."

"I can be a nurse."

"Or actually a nun?"

"I dabble." Amy gives a huff of frustration, crossing her arms.

"Amy, who is your friend?" Mrs. Angelo didn't appear frightened by his appearance so far.

"Amy? Your name was Amelia," Slenderman asks in order to deflect the question Mrs. Angelo asked.

"Yeah? Now I'm Amy." When her answer didn't appear to satisfy him, Amy clarifies, "Amelia Pond. Bit fairytale."

"I know you, don't I? I've seen you somewhere before," Mrs. Angelo chimes in again.

"Doubtful." Amy could've sworn she heard a tone of amusement in his voice. She saw him turn his attention towards her. "Kissogram?"

"I go to parties and I kiss people. With outfits. It's a laugh," Amy defends her job, although she felt odd talking to Slenderman about it.

"Amy dear, it only feels like you were just a little girl five minutes ago." Amy gives Mrs. Angelo an incredulous look, ignoring the stare Slenderman was giving her.

"You're worse than my aunt," Amy frowns, hearing the Prisoner Zero broadcast in Spanish now. "It's in every language now. Great." The message changed to include that the human residence only has twenty minutes left. "Twenty minutes to what?"

A young man enters the room and instantly freezes in place when he sees the tall man. "Are you the Slenderman?"

The light bulb goes off in Mrs. Angelo's head and she says, "He is, isn't he? He's the Slenderman! All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Operator. It's him."

"Shut up," Amy shushes the others, not looking at Slenderman all the while.

"Cartoons?" Now she could definitely feel the silent laughter rolling off of him. Amy's face starts to turn red in response.

"Gran, it's him, isn't it? It's really him!"

"Jeff, shut up. Twenty minutes to what?" Amy glances up at Slenderman to see he was still staring at her.

"The human residence. Not your house. The planet." He turns to exit the house with Amy close on his heels. "There's a spaceship. It's going to incinerate the planet."

The two walk down the middle of the small road until the sky suddenly starts to go dark. A blank disc covers the sun, appearing to be a total eclipse. "What's happening, why is it going dark?" He doesn't respond. "So what's wrong with the sun?"

"Nothing." He doesn't say more than that so Amy goes to punch him in the arm until she spots people in the distance. They're all outside, taking pictures and videos of the sun. Slenderman sees what catches her interest and a sound of derision emanates from him.

"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind up." Amy shakes her head, hands clutched together tightly. She notices his head tilt and with a sigh, she says, "You told me you could travel around the world in five minutes."

"You believed me," he replies, a hint of surprise hidden beneath the statement.

"But then I grew up," she says nothing more and opts for staring at his tie instead of his blank face.

He doesn't say anything back but remembers something he saw earlier in the crowd. There was the man with his dog and a nurse taking pictures of him and not of the sun. He turns toward Amy. "Come with me."

"No."

His tentacles threaten to appear but he hides them, facing Amy fully now. "What?"

"No!" A car pulls up behind them so Amy drags Slenderman by his arm and slams his red tie in the car door then takes the car keys from the driver and locks it. Slenderman surprisingly finds himself going along with Amy's actions, knowing he could teleport away or stop her at any moment but he does nothing. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am, child." His voice sounds neither threatening or patronizing but Amy gets angry regardless.

"No, really. Who are you?" Her face is up close to his and she can see outlines of where his features should be but aren't. His height has gone down to match her's at six feet.

"Twenty minutes." His mouth appears and she can count how many sharp teeth he has. "End of the world."

"Well, better talk quickly, then." The owner of the car, Henderson, comes around but keeps his distance.

"Amy, I am going to need my car back." His timidness doesn't sway Amy from her small interrogation.

"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee." She doesn't spare him a look and places the car keys on the hood.

"Right, yes." Mr. Henderson disappears and does what he's told without another word.

"Twelve years ago, I traveled around the world for you. I am real. Everything is ending. I know how to stop the ending from happening." He speaks with self-assurance and Amy wants to believe but...

"I don't believe you." Amy feels his cold hand wrap around her wrist as he raises her arm in the air in between them, as if to signify how real his touch was. He was so cold and she wonders if there is even blood pumping through his veins.

"Yes, you do." Slenderman drops her arm and Amy unlocks the car, letting him free.

"What do we do?" Amy follows him as he approaches the nurse onto the village green. He grabs his phone but only static appears on the screen so he hands it to Amy to hold.

"You were photographing a man and a dog. Why?" Slenderman got straight to the point but Rory was only looking at Amy.

"Amy." She stands next to his side, holding his phone while going through the photos.

"Hi! Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend." If Slenderman noticed the way she said friend, he didn't show a reaction.

"Boyfriend," Rory corrects.

"Kind of boyfriend," Amy corrects again.

"Amy." Rory looks to her, down at his phone, then up at Slenderman who was watching them carefully. "Oh my God, it's him."

"Just answer his question, please," she pleads, starting to look exasperated.

"It's him, though. The Slenderman. The Operator."

"Yeah, he came back."

"But he was a story. He was a game." At this, Slenderman turns to Amy who was avoiding his stare again.

"Man and dog, Rory." Amy prods her 'kind of boyfriend' for answers.

"Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's in a hospital, in a coma." The answer clicks in his head and Slenderman starts to connect the dots.

"It disguises itself as anything. But it needs a life feed with a living but dormant mind." Slenderman was no stranger to odd beings such as this but this was starting to get a bit beyond him. But he knows the basics thanks to the trip around the world and that is all he needs right now.

An eyeball spaceship comes soaring down, scanning the nearby area. The three watch as the ship passes by them without a second glance and goes back up into the sky. Prisoner Zero turns into goo and disappears down the drain cover before they could go after it.

"So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?" Amy inwardly shudders at the thought until she realizes something. "So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"

"The crack in your wall. They saw me. They followed me. They're only late because I am."

"What's he on about?" Rory takes his phone from Amy but she grabs it back. She flicks through the photos on his iPhone. "How can he be real? He was never real." Amy ignores him and shows the eight images of coma patients to Slenderman which only confirmed his suspicions. There was eight comas, which meant eight disguises for Prisoner Zero. It appeared Amy caught on. "He was just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him."

This makes Slenderman stop looking at the images and turn his gaze back on Amy. She only shakes her head and gives the iPhone to the Slenderman instead of to Rory. "Get to the hospital. I'll be back." He teleports away, leaving Rory to stare at the blank space where he once stood.

"Your car. Come on." Amy was already leaving to get into his Mini across the street.

"But how can he be here? How can the Slenderman be here?" His questions only made Amy come back to drag him along to the car.

* * *

><p>Slenderman returns to his forest to meet with Masky and Hoodie. He explains the entire situation to them, giving them the short version, and Masky is the one to come up the idea to expose Prisoner Zero to the aliens above. His proxies weren't experts on aliens or anything that deal with the extraterrestrial but they knew that they should make sure these aliens shouldn't bother them again. Slenderman says that he'll have a plan for that when it comes up later. His travels around the world have helped him with that.<p>

Masky says while typing on Rory's iPhone, "A chain mail message that includes photos of the eight coma patients, the eclipsed sun, and a blurry one of you. It will say that if you don't send or forward this to everyone on your contact list in the next five minutes, the tall man will visit them. Your typical threatening scary story chain mail text. People can't help but pass it on. Especially with what's going on right now."

"How?" Hoodie asks Masky, head tilted in a manner close to Slender's. Hoodie was quiet and spoke rarely but when he did, Masky and Slender were able to understand what he means behind his short sentences.

"The mass texting will attract their attention. It sounds like they're trying to find Prisoner Zero through various means, including technology. They'll see the photos and the multiple zeroes I'll include throughout the text and trace the original source behind the text to this phone."

Slenderman praises Masky on his help and takes the iPhone from him. He says a quick farewell to his proxies and teleports back to Amy and Rory.

* * *

><p>"Something's happened up there. We can't get through." Rory points to the mass of people standing outside the doors to the coma ward.<p>

"Yes, but what's happened?" Amy hides around the corner with Rory, thinking of ways to get past them.

"I don't know. No one knows. You should phone him." He was a bit miffed that Amy gave away his phone to Slenderman.

"I can't phone him. He doesn't go well with electronic devices or something." She notices her appearance in the mirror in the hall and pulls her hair up into a bun. "Police uniform!" She says excitedly as she grabs Rory's hand to get them through the doors.

Past the doors and up the stairs into the coma ward, Amy and Rory nearly trip over the mess on the floor. "Oh god."

A woman with two girls beside her meet them in the corridor. "Officer," the mother calls out.

"What happened?" Amy questions them.

"There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Doctor Ramsden's dead. And the nurses." She notices there's something not right about the three and slowly starts to back away, taking Rory with her. "He was so angry. He kept shouting and shouting. And that dog. The size of that dog." Except it's not the mother who's speaking. The voice of the mother belongs to the little girl who was now talking. "I, swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone."

Amy and Rory back away even further. "Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths." Her mouth opens up to reveal needle teeth, different from Slender's own teeth.

"Oh my God!" Rory shouts in surprise. Amy grabs his arm and leads them away from Prisoner Zero. They run into the ward and bar the doors with a broom through the handles. They watch helplessly as Prisoner Zero tries to get in. Eventually, the broom gives up and the mother with her two children come through the doors.

"Oh, dear little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her Tall Man to return. But not this time, Amelia."

"This time, I shall." The Slenderman enters the room, having teleported in with three minutes to spare.

"You have no power here, Tall Man," the mother spats.

"Take the disguise off." Slenderman grew back to his original 8 ft, his head barely touching the ceiling. The mass of tentacles appears behind his back, moving about sporadically. "Let them find you. Nobody dies."

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire," the mother threatens.

"You came into this world through a crack. Open another one. _**Leave**_." His booming voice echoes throughout the room.

"I did not open the crack," Prisoner Zero responds.

"Who did?" Slenderman didn't change his stance.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" Her voice changes to that of the little girl. "The Tall Man in his forest doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" It reverts back to the mother's voice. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

A ticking sound vibrates in his pocket and Slenderman pulls out the iPhone. Masky's plan worked. The Atraxi were tracing the phone and honed its tracking signal on it. "Here they are." Bright lights appear outside the windows.

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

"And this phone has pictures of you. Every form." Slenderman says curtly, knowing Prisoner Zero knows what he's talking about.

"Then I shall take a new form," the mother counters.

"Forming new psychic links takes months," Slenderman explains, drawing nearer to Prisoner Zero.

"And I've had years." Behind him, Amy collapses, falling into a deep sleep.

"Amy?" The sound of slight concern in his voice troubles him but he puts it aside for now as he goes to her side next to Rory. "Don't sleep, child. Stay awake."

"Slenderman." Rory draws his attention to Prisoner Zero. He had transformed into him, minus the tentacles and tall height, only appearing at six feet.

"You've linked with her. Why are you copying me?" Slenderman questions, standing back up to face himself.

"I'm not." A little girl comes from behind him and holds his hand. It's Amelia Pond at age seven, looking exactly as she did twelve years ago. "Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the Tall Man she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been."

Slenderman knows she's dreaming of him because she can hear him. He needs to make her listen so he goes back to her side. "Remember the room. The one you can't see. Corner of your eye. Dream about what you saw."

Prisoner Zero transforms into the perfect impersonation of himself, now back in his original form.

"Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained." A bright light shines down on him.

"Silence, Tall Man. Silence will fall." He disappears in a rush of wind.

"The sun. It's back to normal, right? That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over." Rory sees Amy wake up and addresses her before waiting for a response from Slenderman. "Amy. Are you okay? Are you with us?"

"What happened?" She grumbles, rubbing the spot where her head hit the floor when she collapsed.

"He did it. Slenderman did it," Rory sees him return back down to six feet.

"No. They are still here." Slenderman exits the coma ward, Amy and Rory right behind him in a flash.

"Where are you going?" Amy asks, taking the phone from him to hand back to Rory.

"The roof." With that, he puts a hand on both their shoulders and teleports them to the roof where the Atraxi are hovering overhead.

"But they were leaving," Amy protests, seeing the giant eyeball face them. Rory looks ready to faint from the teleporting.

"I'd rather if they never came back." Slenderman gestures for the Atraxi to come down and the eyeball drops onto the roof and scans him.

"You are not of this world," it stated.

"I am not human. But I am of this world," Slenderman corrects, straightening his tie.

The Atraxi scans him again and confirms this new information. "Is this world important?"

"Is this world a threat to you?" He asks instead, watching as the Atraxi analyzed a projection of the Earth.

"No."

"The humans are not a threat to you. But I am. Do you know why?"

"No."

"There are others like me on this world. It is us you should fear." The Atraxi goes through a projection that shows Slenderman, a few similar beings, and other unknowns, their appearances terrifying like images out of a horror movie. Static starts to interrupt the projection as Slenderman's voice drops dangerously. "Do not threaten to destroy this world. We know who you are. You know who we are. Leave. Never return."

The eyeball zooms back to its ship and leaves very fast, disappearing from view. "Is that it? Are they gone for good? Who were they?" Amy asks but Slenderman was nowhere to be seen. She shuts her eyes for a moment, refusing to move until Rory makes his presence known.

"Amy...let's go," he says quietly. The two leave the hospital and return to Rory's car. On the drive back home, Amy contemplates everything she's seen. It was bizarre and freaky. Those were the only two words she could think of. And Amy was usually good with words. It's why she made short stories about her and Slenderman when she was a kid.

After all was said and done, Amy starts getting ready for bed. Before she climbs under the covers, Amy takes a moment to look over her drawings. There were lots from when she was seven but over the years the drawings grew fewer and fewer in number. Most of them were in pencil but Amy liked to experiment with watercolor or painting or pastel chalks. Her room was littered with her childhood obsession. Amy never thought the images were creepy or scary. Her Aunt Sharon and others thought differently.

Sighing heavily, she shifts the papers around on her desk until she sees the stories she used to write. With a small laugh, Amy begins to read them. There was one where Amy and Slenderman visited outerspace and touched the cosmos. The planets bend between them, a hundred million stars and suns greeting them. Another one has them visiting Vincent Van Gogh in the past, helping him inspire new paintings.

There's one familiar factor in all of her stories, Amy notices. Slenderman doesn't act ominous or menacing. Amy realizes that this may not be true anymore. His appearance was meant to entice fear. He had used his ability to cause fear to drive away the aliens to make sure they never came back again. And yet Amy wasn't afraid of him. Amy was tiring herself out with these thoughts so she places the papers back on her cluttered desk and climbs into bed.

There was no sound to wake her, only silence, but Amy flies out of bed to run toward the window. She was dreaming and whatever happened in that dream woke her up. The dream was fading away and Amy was sure it was nothing important. She only remembers a voice now. It was speaking, its words reverberating in her skull. _"Have you dreamed of the fall of the universe, stars falling and leaving you breathless and dying and in love with the broken universe?" _

The sight that greets her at the window is Slenderman. Amy runs outside to meet him, the cold air blowing across her bare skin. Goosebumps raise on her legs and arms and she shudders and blinks her eyes rapidly to make sure she still wasn't dreaming. The haziness of her vision retreats and Amy can see him clearly now. "It's you. You came back."

"Of course I came back, child." Slenderman was six feet tall to match her height so she wouldn't have to strain to look up at him.

Amy blurts out without thinking, "Are you from another planet?"

"No. This is my planet too. You heard me earlier," Slenderman answers in her head.

"But you're not..." Amy trails off, giving him an inspection. Her eyes roam his tall form, committing the details to memory. His black suit and red tie fit like a second skin on him, his dress shoes shine a perfect gleaming black, his arms and legs long and gangly, his torso was impossibly thin...his proportions were all wrong.

"-Human," he finishes, head tilting at her staring. Amy stops immediately.

"Okay." Amy could ask all her questions now but she was squandering the opportunity with her monosyllabic mouth. "What are you then?"

"Some call me a demon. An evil spirit. A human from a past life. A myth, a legend, a campfire story. The man who steals children's souls." Slenderman lets his arms hang loosely at his sides while he keeps talking. "Fables say that I am a fairy, a mythical creature used to scare children into behaving. People that are trying to chronicle my existence today say that I am part of the supernatural or the paranormal. Others argue that I'm merely a fictional being, a story in your head."

"But you're real."

"This has been established. But what do you believe, child?" There was a long stretch of silence before Amy said anything more.

"I believe..." Amy gazes down at his shoes before drifting back up his frame to meet his blank face. "I believe you are all of that. You are what people think you are. Your existence depends on what others know of you. But none of it matters in the end. You're just...you." With a shrug, Amy could only base her response on what she knows so far which isn't much.

Her mind wanders back to the moment she first met Slenderman in her garden at age seven. He wasn't helpful at first until he was. In fact, she was pretty sure he was trying to scare her. She only thought he was funny and weird. Pretty soon, he turned into an almost friend. But when Amy explained everything to Aunt Sharon the following day, she only had one thing to say.

_"Slenderman is a monster."_

"I believe in you," Amy gives him her final answer, a smile accompanying it.

The silence was growing louder. Moments tick by slowly. The cold night air was chilling her to the bone. Finally, he responds. Slenderman holds out his hand for her to take. "Come with me."

"Where?" Amy asks, her breath appears in the air from the cold.

"Wherever," he cryptically replies back.

The word 'no' forms on her lips but instead she answers, "I grew up."

"I doubt that." As he speaks, Amy holds his hand as he teleports them. What awaits them is a forest. Above them, the night sky twinkles with stars and the moon is shining brighter than ever. The trees sway and bend in the wind. The leaves that fall to the ground around them are gold, green, red, and pink. It's like seeing the end of a rainbow. And it's breathtaking. "What do you think?"

"I'm in my nightie," Amy laughs as her robe tries to fly away from her. She could've sworn she heard a chuckle from him but it could've been the wind. Swirling around to face the tall man, Amy asks with seriousness, "Why me?"

His head tilts and Amy asks the question another way. "You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"

"Does there have to be a reason, child?" Slenderman starts to walk away. Amy stays close beside him.

"People always have a reason," she states defensively.

"I am not people." His words echo their previous conversation twelve years prior.

"Okay," Amy concedes. She turns her attention back to the colorful forest. There is little darkness despite the time of night. "It's just, there's a whole world out here. You could get lost and nobody would ever know."

"I won't lose you in the dark, Amelia." It sounds like a promise and Amy decides to trust him.

"Can you make sure I make it back tomorrow morning?" At seeing he was questioning why without voicing it, Amy replies, "We can do these trips nightly. Or even during the day. It's just that there's people that would wonder where I've gone. Mainly Rory or maybe my aunt but...we can be gone for a week or two sometimes. I'm pretty good with excuses."

"Very well," Slenderman agrees.

After several minutes of silence, Amy smiles to herself and says quietly, "I was starting to think maybe you were just like a tall man in a forest."

"Amelia Pond." He takes her hand and just before he teleports them to another location, he replies, "I really am just a tall man in a forest."

Upon seeing their new destination, Amy looks behind her as if she could still see her house from wherever they are. "Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything."


	8. you were my star

"You were my whole galaxy, while I was merely a star in yours."

-unknown

* * *

><p><em> "Look at these, Amy." Her Aunt Sharon was bothering her again. She was fourteen, during this particular conversation. Of course, this conversation has happened many times in the past. Why would it stop now? <em>

_ "Not now, Aunt Sharon," Amy mutters as she continues to dip her paintbrush in the black paint. She runs out of black paint far too often. With a disdain in her eyes, she throws her aunt a look when her back is turned. _

_ "Amy, please. Honestly, are you painting that **thing** again?" Her shrill voice is starting to give Amy a headache. _

_ Hints of rebellion present in her voice, Amy replies swiftly, "Yes." She wants to protest that he isn't a **thing **but how does she know? How much does she really know about Slenderman? She supposes she'll never get her answers now. Each day that passes by only confirms her worst suspicions. He was never going to come back. 'Don't lose hope, Amy', she tells herself daily. _

_ "He's not real, Amy. We've been over this-" Amy starts to tune her out. She wants to kick and scream and shout at her aunt but she won't. She'll only do that to the psychiatrists. Strokes of black paint start to put together the black suit he wears. Taking out the red paint, Amy starts to paint his red tie that stands out against his dark figure. _

_ "Look at what I found, Amy," her aunt says as she throws down a pile of recently printed paper on her desk. It nearly spills her paint all over. This makes Amy start to pay attention to her, frustration coursing through her. _

_ "What?" Amy almost shouts, just barely an octave higher than usual. _

_ "Look at what I found on the internet, Amy. He's nothing more than a story," her aunt taps on the first page to point out a paragraph._

_ From the corner of her eye, Amy peers at the paragraph. It speaks of Slenderman being a story that parents used to tell their children at night if they ever misbehaved or that teenagers tell each other after watching a scary movie. She huffs at the article her aunt printed out for her to read. _

_ "Keep reading it," she insists. Amy eventually takes the paper from her and begins to read the rest of the page. It talks of murder and victims never found again and forests and demons and urban legends. "He's a monster."_

_ "Shut up," Amy softly murmurs, tears threatening to spill over. _

_ "Slenderman is the monster in the closet, under your bed. He's imaginary," her aunt continues, not seeing how upset Amy was. _

_ "Shut up," she says it louder, blinking away the unshed tears. _

_ "Oh Amy. How is it that you're almost fifteen and you still have an imaginary friend?" Aunt Sharon sighs, shaking her head at her niece. _

_ "Shut up," she nearly hisses, harshness biting her small shout. Her Aunt Sharon says nothing else and leaves but not before telling her to read the rest of the papers. Right after she exits her room, Amy takes the offending pages and hides them underneath a stack of other papers, not wanting to read the rest of it. Amy spends the rest of her afternoon painting a man who would never return._

* * *

><p>"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Amy admits as the tingling fades away. Every time Slenderman teleports somewhere with her in tow, it was an almost unreal experience. It was like touching the television screen and it shocks you with static but more pleasantly. She runs her tongue across her teeth, not fond of the rattling feeling in her mouth after teleporting.<p>

He doesn't say anything to that. In fact, Amy deduces that he hardly says anything at all unless he really needed to, like that situation back with Prisoner Zero. Yesterday was...beyond bizarre and a little crazy. First off, Slenderman came back. He came back for her. And then there was aliens with eyeball ships and things living in her house and Rory meeting Slenderman and he was talking in her head. Amy nearly thinks that it's all too much. But she rather likes having been in the middle of all that chaos. It was like a giant thrill ride that pumped her full of adrenaline. Now here she was, walking alongside her imaginary friend in a dark and creepy forest.

Amy wants to ask so many questions. She feels like she deserves answers to at least some of them. Where are they going? What is this place? Who are you really?

_"He's a monster."_

She shakes her aunt's voice out of her head. Instead, she hears Mels' and Rory's voices.

_"Why does he have tentacles? Why does he wear a suit? How can he teleport? Is it like Star Trek? Why is he so tall? Where's his face?"_

It's better to start with the easier questions. There was less potential to accidentally offend him or something.

"So, what's up...?" Amy inwardly cringes at how casual sounding that was as his face swivels to face her. "With those...tentacles thingies on your back?" She hopelessly describes them, waving her hands in the air.

At her question, the tentacles appear from behind him. They remind Amy of squirming worms nailed down, like out of her science class when they dissected them. She can barely see them in the dark, squinting to get a better look.

"Is that supposed to scare people?" Amy ponders out loud, her head tilting like his while catching glimpses at his writing tentacles. Then she worries if that sounded insulting.

"Yes," his voice echoes in her head.

Other questions that make her flinch flash through her mind. Are you associated with murder? Do children really disappear after meeting you? Are you a story in my head? Why do you live in dark foreboding forests?

Amy decides to ask another safe question. "What's with the suit?"

He simply glances down at said suit and smooths it out, adjusting his tie a little. No answer yet.

"Is it like a disguise?" She swallows before proceeding. "Like a men in black thing?"

"Not...exactly," he says slowly, almost sounding confused by her line of questioning. Close enough, Amy decides.

More questions flood her head. Are you some urban legend come to life? How old are you? What's your story?

"How do you teleport?" Amy nearly mentions the Star Trek bit. That definitely would've confused him. "Is it something you can just...do?"

"Yes..." he responds, still facing her in the dark. Her bright hair stands out amongst the darkness and shines in the moonlight.

"Okay," Amy nods quickly, not liking how monosyllabic he's being right now. He was full of answers earlier. Sort of. But now...it was like he couldn't be bothered to say more than two words to her. Did she do something? With a yawn, Amy stretches her tired limbs in order to bring back life to them.

When he notices her tired state, Slenderman takes her hand and teleports her back to her garden outside her house. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," he promises and leaves without saying more.

A frown etches on her disappointed face and with that, Amy goes back inside and up to her room where she starts searching for those papers her Aunt Sharon gave her a long time ago. She spends the rest of her night before dawn arrives reading and learning more of her imaginary friend, unaware of what Slenderman was going through at that moment...


	9. promise me

**A/N: Thanks for any and all reviews! :)**

_..._

_"-But I will hold as long as you like. Just promise me we'll be alright."_

-Mumford & Sons

* * *

><p>The evening air was warm and peaceful. There was no ominous fog or dark clouds looming in the sky or a chill that sends tingles up your back. It was sunny and inviting. Slenderman wasn't used to this setting. He supposes that his brother, Splendorman, prefers to hang out in a cheery environment than a scary one. He feels out of place here, like he doesn't belong. But once Splendorman sees him in the distance and waves excitedly at him, he knows its too late to leave.<p>

"Little brother, there you are! It's been years..." Slenderman can hear his brother's sadness and mentally rolls his eyes. He begins to wonder if his brother feels time go by as slowly as humans do. These past twelve years was a blur for him but for Splendy...

"I am aware," Slenderman replies back smoothly, watching a pair of kids run through the park in the distance. His brother's large smile comes into view and he continues, "But I am here to keep my promise."

"You can keep my promise but you can't keep that little girl's promise?" His brother's voice was clearly disapproving. Slenderman merely growls in his direction but Splendy pays him no mind. "Have you gone back to her?"

"Yes..." Slenderman trails off, thinking on yesterday's chaotic events.

"And?" Splendy can barely contain his excitement at hearing his brother's story. "What is she like now?"

"Older," he answers curtly. Amelia was only a little girl five minutes ago. But now she is Amy, twelve years older at age nineteen. It was becoming increasingly harder to accept this fact. He doesn't know why. He is this being that has lived for many years and he's well aware that humans decay and wither and age over time. But seeing this happen to Amelia is troubling him and it needs to stop.

"Slendy..." Splendorman whines at his brother's bluntness. He wants to hear all the little details for he hasn't seen little Amelia in a very long time. Splendy, wanting this rare visit by his little brother to last as long as possible, leads his brother to a nearby tree to sit down by. "Tell me everything!"

"Amelia is no longer Amelia. She goes by...Amy now." Splendorman can hear the disdain dripping from him, not liking the name change at all. He's curious at this but lets his brother continue on.

"She's tall. Almost six feet tall." He recalls the fake police officer uniform she had on and how ill-fitting it was. "She's a kissogram." He expresses confusion at this peculiar occupation, not understanding it at all. Splendy says that he'll find out more about it for him, if he'd like. Slendy doesn't reply to this offer for he doesn't like the implications behind such an odd job.

"Is she with that little boy now?" Splendorman asks Slendy, who tilts his head at him. "Oh, what's his name? Rory!"

"What...? Yes. I suppose. Why?" Slenderman doesn't understand his brother's fascination with the nurse. Did Splendy meet Rory? If so, that could mean-

"I saw them together in the park. Along with this other girl. The three of them are so cute!" The large obnoxious smile grows larger in size if that were possible. Slenderman merely shakes his head at him. "I think Amelia might've seen me once but that was only for a second, I promise!" Slenderman nods in response, not getting angry at the thought of Amy seeing Splendorman. It wasn't as if it would have serious repercussions but he had asked his brother not to interfere in her life. "Please, continue the story!"

Slenderman recalls the fiery gaze Amelia gave him the other day. There were unhidden emotions there in her green eyes. He knows what they are now. Frustration. Anger. Sadness. Surprise. Happiness. Confusion. But no fear. She was not afraid of him. She was afraid of the crack and the alien that resided in her home for twelve long years. Slenderman tells Splendorman about the aliens, beings not of their world, and the threats he made. Everything was getting bigger and crazier and it all involved Amelia Pond. The darker part of his mind told him to kill her, like he would in the past, so he could be done with the mystery and continue on with his existence. He had befriended her, made her trust him, let her think he was coming back in five minutes, had lured her out into the forest but did nothing. Just showed her there's a bigger world out there, bigger than her little village of Leadworth. How can he kill her now?

But Slenderman had moved past that. Wasn't interested in gruesome murders, only in the hunt of a potential victim. Haunting, following, stalking, tormenting a person until they reach the point of extreme paranoia, unease, and fear. And then he takes them away, never to be heard from again. Lets them find their own way home, back to the shambles of their life. But never really kills them. Not like he used to. He couldn't do this to Amelia Pond. But why her? Another question to be answered at a late time.

Splendorman was politely listening the entire time, but grew childishly terrified of the eyeball ships the aliens had. But his frown turns upside down when Slenderman talks of how he came back that same night to take Amelia away only to return her home a few hours later. "Have you seen her room yet?" Splendorman asks.

"No..." Slenderman slowly says, realizing he hasn't actually seen her room in twelve years, not since that night he discovered the crack in her wall. "Why?'

"I saw it several years ago. The first time was when I put her to bed after you left her all alone outside," Splendy says, slightly chastising his younger brother. "But the second time...oh Slendy."

"What's wrong with her room?" Slenderman can only imagine how big the crack must've gotten.

"Nothing. Besides the crack. But...Slendy...you have no idea." Slenderman didn't like how upset Splendy was getting.

"Tell me," Slenderman demands, standing up from his position on the dewy grass.

"You have to see it," Splendorman insists, standing up to meet his blank gaze. "Little brother, you said you wanted to see how that night would change her life. You said you wouldn't cause the Slender Sickness on her!"

"I haven't," Slenderman defends himself, not liking what his brother was implying.

"Yes you have!" He has never seen his brother get this distressed before, at least not in a long, long time. "Explain this." Before Slenderman could react, Splendorman had tossed roses, tulips, and sunflowers in the air, covering them in their floral scent. The small area around them glows with the flower's unnatural light and they teleported into little Amelia's room. Before Slenderman could ask his brother what he was doing, he sees that they traveled back in time. Slenderman thought that he was the only brother that was capable of such a feat, moving through time and space. But it usually leads to Dimensional Bleeding if he stayed in the past too long which was the number one reason why he didn't go back twelve years for Amelia. The ramifications of such an action, like causing a Rift to appear, would be too much. "Look around you, Slendy."

"You can't do this," Slenderman starts but Splendy cuts him off by grabbing a drawing on Amelia's desk and showing it to him.

"No, _you_ can't do this," Splendy retorts, his happy smile now replaced with a thin line.

"I didn't make her do this." Slenderman carefully handles the paper, seeing the comics that woman from the village was talking about. "This isn't from the Sickness. This was on her own. This was Amelia's choice-" At the mention of her name, little Amelia stirs in her sleep on the bed nearby. "We have to go." Both Splendorman and Slenderman start to teleport at the same time but before Slendy could leave, Splendy grabs him and takes him to his next location. The two brothers end up in a deserted mall, closed for the night. "Why here?"

"I was thinking we could pay our other brother a visit. Like a little family reunion!" The smile was back on Splendy's face but it lacks his usual joy. Slenderman groans at the mention of a family reunion. He was generally fond of his brothers but there was a reason why he never visits them.

"Splendorman, I don't have time for this." He looks around the mall in an attempt to figure out which brother they were visiting. It became obvious which one it was. As Slenderman makes his displeasure known by sighing, he remembers the words Prisoner Zero told him yesterday. He forgot to mention that part to his brother. Quickly, he swivels to face Splendy, hoping that for some reason, his brother would know what it meant. "Prisoner Zero. He said, 'The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.' Do you know what that means?"

"It means you're stuck in a fairytale that isn't going to have a happy ending," a familiar voice calls out from behind them. Slenderman and Splendorman turn to face their other brother, Trenderman.

"Trendy!" Splendy calls out happily, outstretching his arms as if to give him a hug. Trenderman accepts Splendy's affections but turns somber at the sight of Slenderman. "What do you mean there's no happy ending?" Splendy looks ready to cry which causes Trendy to pat him on the back.

"It means that while I don't care much for this horror world you live in, Slenderman, I care enough to know that there's something bigger and scarier in the works here," Trenderman explains. He places his pale hands in his khaki pockets, appraising his brothers' outfits.

"Could you be more cryptic..." Slenderman mentally rolls his eyes at his other brother who was now staring at his red tie. "Explain yourself."

"I'm no expert in what you deal with, Slendy. But I've been around humans long enough to know a good fairytale story from a bad one. I'm afraid this is the latter." When Slenderman questions how him being around humans in a mall makes him more knowledgeable about fairytales and their meanings, he retorts by saying there's a small bookstore here that children flock to. It's not hard to decipher the fact that he overhears the kids talk about the book's contents.

"How is this a bad...'fairytale'?" Slenderman hears two voices in his head, both overlapping each other. _'Bit fairytale.' _It was Amelia's voice, along with his own. He doesn't like the parallels that are going on.

"Well if you'll tell me the whole story, perhaps I can explain it better," Trenderman suggests, taking his hands out from his pockets and crossing his arms against his brown vest. Slenderman once again tells the entire story of him meeting Amelia Pond and the crack in her wall and the aliens that came to visit. At the end of it, Trendy scoffs and remarks, "This sounds more like science-fiction to me."

"It's all true," Slenderman argues. "Unless you're suggesting that _we_ are merely urban legends, then do not turn your head against the idea of aliens simply being science-fiction."

"I am suggesting no such thing," Trendy argues back, placing his hands on his hips. "It's just strange that all of this is happening around a little girl whose childhood you stole."

"Please, stop fighting!" Splendy pleads, placing himself between his two brothers. They see how emotional their brother was getting and immediately stop arguing. "Trendy, please tell me this story ends well."

"I don't know," Trendy honestly says, giving a helpless shrug. "It doesn't sound like it. But there's always twists in a good bedtime story. Maybe there's one here."

"Do either of you know what that message means?" Slenderman interrupts, starting to lose patience again.

"The Universe is cracked. There's a crack in Amelia's bedroom wall. There might be more to that one. The Pandorica will open. That saying sounds familiar but I don't quite remember, I'm afraid. Silence will fall? Oh, that one can go wrong in so many ways. Whether it's being literal or metaphorical, I can't say. But there's someone behind all of this, I'm sure of it. Perhaps it's-"

"Don't say his name," Slenderman warns him, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Is it-" Splendy starts, his hands reaching up to cover his mouth.

"Don't." Slenderman gives him a pointed look.

"But who else?" Trenderman reasons, now wishing he was sitting back in the store where he resides instead of dealing with forces beyond him and his control.

"It doesn't have to be him. Don't jump to conclusions," Slenderman counters. "We'll figure it out. But not now. It could very well not mean anything." That was wishful thinking but neither Splendy or Trendy pointed it out.

The silence between them was overbearing. The moon was shining down on them through the mall's windows which reminds Slenderman that he should check up on his proxies. Undoubtedly, they must be curious about what's been going on lately. "I'm afraid I must take my leave," Slendy says after awhile.

"So must I. I've got a long day of being a mannequin tomorrow." Trendy gives into the good-bye hug Splendy insists on having and nods curtly at Slendy before leaving to enter the store he came from. Before he disappears completely, he calls out to Slendy, "As much as I prefer to be left alone away from your world, brother, do not hesitate to visit more often."

"You've kept your promise," Splendy blurts out before Slenderman can leave. "You told me everything, right?"

"Yes," he replies.

"Did you really go around the world to find out who Prisoner Zero was?" Splendy's smile starts to appear again.

"Yes. I needed to know if he was a threat to us. Aliens and other-worldly beings have not caused us this much trouble in the past. But for now, they will not bother us," Slenderman explains.

"You're getting soft," Splendy comments, a small hint of teasing hidden in his bold but well-intentioned statement. A part of him was feeling proud of his younger brother but another part was getting worried. What was to happen if a certain someone found out he was starting to care for a human when that was not in Slenderman's nature? It was expected of Splendorman to be this way but not from his brother.

"Hardly," Slenderman scoffs.

"You did it for Amelia. You traveled across the world for her," Splendorman repeats the words Slenderman relayed to him when trying to get Amelia to believe in him.

"Only to find out about what was behind the crack. If being around me is more preferable than being around a crack in a wall, that says something. It was curiosity, nothing more," Slendy defends himself against his brother's assumptions.

Splendorman drops the subject about Amelia for now but raises another question. "If it wasn't Prisoner Zero that opened the crack, then who?"

"Whoever it was, it better not be who Trenderman was thinking of," Slenderman sighs, not liking where the line of questioning was going. He preferred it when he was asking him about Amelia.

"I hope so," Splendy says with a big frown. When silence fell upon them, Splendy quickly says his good-byes and hugs his brother tightly before disappearing in a cloud made of flowers and sunshine. Slenderman was left alone in the large empty hallway of the closed mall. Before his mind starts to wander, he teleports back to his forest to talk to his proxies.

…

Amy wakes up to the sound of her Aunt Sharon knocking on her bedroom door, letting her know Rory was downstairs with breakfast. She remembers falling asleep when the sun was starting to peek out from the horizon. Wincing at the various paper cuts across her fingertips, Amy slowly gets up from her chair only to feel all of her bones creak and muscles strain against the movement. Sleeping at her desk while reading important papers regarding her imaginary friend is something she won't be doing again. "Amy! Rory's waiting!"

"Alright!" Amy shouts back as she rubs away the drowsiness in her eyes. With one quick look in the mirror, she sees how bad her appearance is. Dark circles, messy ginger hair, rumbled pajamas, drool running down the side of her mouth, it all reminds her of the night after she first met Slenderman. This better not become a thing if she starts to travel and go out with him. Amy stifles a laugh at the _'go out with him' _bit.

After she slips out of her nightie and into her usual choice of clothes which consists of a mini skirt, boots, and a simple top with a bomber jacket over it, Amy rushes downstairs to meet her boyfriend. "Rory."

"Amy," the nurse starts but sees her appearance. "Are you okay?"

Of course, he notices how tired she looks. Who wouldn't be after what happened last night? Amy is deciding against telling Rory about Slenderman coming back after leaving her again. "Yeah, I'm fine. So, what's for breakfast?" Amy hurriedly says with a reassuring smile, her stomach growling at the smell of food.

"Right. Well my dad made some eggs and bacon and put them in a bag for me so I figured we could share them before I go into work." Rory begins to take out the food and puts the bag's contents on plates at the table. Meanwhile, Amy's mind was soaring a million miles away from where she was. All she could think about was what she learned about Slenderman. There was no doubt Rory was going to want to talk to her about yesterday's events more properly this evening after his shift at the hospital. But would she mention the new information she found out? How would Rory react about the little adventure she had with Slenderman teleporting in different forests? Rory breaks her train of thought by setting her plate full of hot food in front of her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Told you, Rory. I'm fine," Amy replies sleepily, resisting the urge to yawn as she grabs her fork to pick at her food. He doesn't seem to believe her but leaves it be as the two enjoy their simple breakfast before Rory gets up to leave for work. He gives her a quick kiss on top of her head and takes off jogging out the front door. Amy sits at the kitchen table for a few more minutes before retreating to her room. She jumps on her bed to take a nap but not before letting her gaze linger on a drawing on her wall. Before succumbing to a deep sleep, she thinks about the colorful suit-wearing person that resembles Slenderman greets her behind a few crudely drawn trees. "Who are you?"

After that, her world goes dark before erupting in a series of small dreams that last until she wakes up in the early evening to talk to Rory about Slenderman.


End file.
